The Brisbane G20 communique focuses on stimulating job growth, bolstering global financial institutions and addressing climate change.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the G20 has delivered real, practical outcomes and as a result people right around the world are going to be better off.
The G20 leaders agreed to more than 800 separate reform measures largely designed to stimulate job growth, boost female participation in economies and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.
Mr Abbott said Australia focused on three key themes: boosting growth and employment, enhancing global economic resilience and strengthening global institutions.
We have signed off on a peer-reviewed growth package that, if implemented, will achieve a 2.1 per cent increase in global growth over the next five years, on top of business as usual, he said.
The Brisbane action plan contains over 800 separate reform measures, and, if we do all that we have committed to doing, the IMF and the OECD tell us that our… gross domestic product will be 2.1 per cent higher.
As had been foreshadowed, the three-page communique also included measures to address tax evasion.
We absolutely want companies to pay their fair share of tax and we want them to pay their tax in the jurisdictions where their profits are earned, Mr Abbott said.
It’s about the countries of the world, the people of the world receiving the tax benefits that are their due.
It’s needed so that governments can fund the infrastructure and the services that people expect and deserve.
In an effort to increase infrastructure investment, Mr Abbott said the G20 would launch a global infrastructure initiative to address the $70 trillion gap in infrastructure needed by 2030.
A Global Infrastructure Hub would be based in Sydney.
Mr Abbott said the leaders also agreed to increase competition, unshackle the private sector from unnecessary regulation and set a target to increase female participation.
We have had a pledge by all G20 countries to reduce the gap between female and male workforce participation by a quarter to reduce the gap by 25 per cent over the next 15 years … this has the potential to bring 100 million women into the global workforce, he said.
An extraordinary achievement if we can deliver on this, but it is a clear aspiration and it is an achievable accountable goal.
IMF to monitor leaders’ pledges
International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said the body would monitor the leaders’ commitments to growth.
The action plan was great but needs to be implemented, she said.
Our job will be to monitor country by country, action by action, reform by reform, whether there is delivery or not.
We will … report to the G20 as publicly as is possible.
Ms Lagarde also praised the commitment to reduce the gender gap by 25 per cent by 2025 and hoped it could be brought forward.
World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim, who was in Brisbane for the talks, welcomed the leaders’ commitment to increasing growth in the global economy.
G20 leaders have rightly identified investment in infrastructure as crucial to lifting growth, creating jobs and tackling poverty, he said.
G20 measures to address climate change
Mr Abbott said the leaders agreed to work together to develop better approaches to promote energy efficiency.
According to the draft communique, climate change was to be mentioned in a paragraph in the final document, although there had been a push by Europe and the United States for it to be a bigger focus.
The G20 energy efficiency action plan identifies six areas where increased global action will have real benefits for all, Mr Abbott said.
Our actions will support sustainable development, economic growth and certainty for business and investment and, of course, we will all work constructively towards the climate change conference in Paris next year.
Mr Abbott denied reports he did not want leaders to discuss climate change and had a robust exchange with US president Barack Obama on the issue.
It’s certainly been a very harmonious, constructive and collegial process and not only was the communique drafting process constructive and collegial but the discussion in the room today was very constructive and collegial, Mr Abbott said.
[I’m] sure different people had different emphases but all of us want to take strong and effective action against climate change, and all of us want to do that in ways which build our growth and particularly strengthen our employment because that in the end is what it’s all about.
Mr Abbott said there were also a number of other important international issues dealt with by leaders.
He said leaders expressed deep concern about the human and economic impact of Ebola, and discussed practical measures to tackle the outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
We support the international response and have committed to do all we can to sustain and respond to the crisis, he said.
British prime minister David Cameron said the summit made strong progress on trade, tax and climate change.
He said all countries, including Australia, would have to take a target to next year’s climate change summit in Paris as part of the process to strike international agreement on tackling carbon emissions.
That global deal will crucially rely on the biggest emitters, on China and America, really stepping up, he said.
Because when that happens and, I think other countries that account for a smaller percentage of world emissions can see the point of joining in, but I’d urge everyone to join in.
Mr Abbott also announced China would host the 2016 Leaders’ Summit after Turkey’s presidency next year.
